Turkey Trot

Well it's traditionally a big eating day today. I am going to do my best not to over do it but I'll be honest it'll be tough. The berry pie is staring me down. :>

We did out 4 week retest in basic training this week and fortunately I've made improvement across the board. I cut a full minute off my 500 meter swin and 30 seconds off the 1.5 mile run. And most impressively I was able to do a pull up. In the class yesterday I was able to do 4 pull ups. It's nice to see progress but more importantly it's good to feel good. It still amazes me how fast my body is recovering and it shows the only reason I was stuck being fat and out of shape is because that's what I accepted for myself. For at least today I'm doing my best to not accept that.

My wife and I are visiting my mom in Myrtle Beach and that area offered a turkey trot run. My wife talked me into doing the 8K as opposed to the 5K and I'm glad she did. The course was flat so it was above the distance I should have run but my normal runs have a lot of hills in them so I decided to try. I was hoping mainly to finish without stopping. I didn't have a pace goal set in my head but I was hoping for at least 11 minute miles. I was doing 9 minute mile for short distances but I didn't feel I would of been able to maintain that for more than a couple of miles. Before the race we met up with one of Betsy's friends who is into fitness who truend into a great asset for me during the race. Weather wise it was a great day to run. It was cool and misty.

It was the first time I had run a official race in 15 years. I used to run some in my late 20's but nothing ever more than a 5K. The race started and juggling through the initial crowd was a challenge but it spread open pretty quickly. I lost my wife and her friend pretty quickly. I can't remember struggling terribly in the beginning. I tried to focus on not starting too fast like I have a habit of doing. I usually start fast and it drains me for the end part of the race. I think the ended up helping me in the end. About 2 miles in Mac, my wife's friend, caught up with me and we set a pace together. We just dug in. It was a great learning experience to have soeone be there to keep me from slowing down. My usually pattern is to slow the farther I go and Mac definitely helped me not to slow to a pace that was too slow. The pace was great and my heart rate stayed up but we were still able to have burst conversations. It was really a great help to have a partner.

when we hit the last mile we turned up the pace a bit. My biggest barrier is usually my head telling me I can't do something. My head was saying go slower but we just picked it up. Coming around into the last couple of hundred yards we could see the ending flags and I just focused in those and turned it on more. I had to hold back the overwhelming urge to just puke and just run. It was a great feeling to cross that finish line with the clock under 48 minutes. I would have never thought I would of been able to run a longer distance at that pace. It felt and feels really good to have surpassed those expectations. The last mile I just wanted to stop so many time. My head was saying stop stop stop and I said to myself with each breath go go go. Soon the go was louder and I kept the legs moving.

Who knows what the future will hold. Perhaps a early spring half marathon?

Basic training for Saturday is going to consist of a day in Umstead park Orienteering. I am so looking forward to this. I wanted to learn how to do that forever.